


a heroine never gives up

by 4cky



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Aborted Suicide, F/F, F/M, Oxygen Deprivation, Ryouta is a trans girl again so, Suicide Attempt, everyone's in their pseudohuman forms because frankly i just dont know how to write birds, holiday star spoilers (somewhat), self-hate, theres that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:25:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5158625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4cky/pseuds/4cky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[a pseudosequel to Metathesiophobia] The King is everyone. Everyone is The King. But heroines never give up the most important people to them that easily.</p><p>[Ryouta-joins-The-King au where Hiyoko takes her back home with the rest of them]</p>
            </blockquote>





	a heroine never gives up

Hiyoko raised her fists as she spoke to the King, eyes bright with a fierce determination. Nageki and her had already freed Okosan, Miru, Kaku, and Shuu (? Probably, at least), and Yuuya had said he was on his way to get Hitori nee Nemo. They were so close to getting back home! “We’re gonna leave here, whether you like it or not!” 

“Don’t leave. The King wants you to stay. The King has so many friends here,” The King no longer sounded like a single person; The King’s voice was an oddly discordant mix of voices, sounding as bland as the citizen’s had. But there was something oddly familiar about one of the many voices.

“Wait, Miss Tosaka,” Nageki brought a hand up to his mouth, frowning, “didn’t you hear…” he trailed off. She clenched her teeth, if Nageki had heard it, than certainly…

“The King! Where’s Ryouta?” Hiyoko hadn’t really heard much from Yuuya about what had happened to Ryouta, honestly. He was cutting out a lot on his way to get Mister Nanaki slash Hitori nee Nemo. But, she’d assumed, she’d hoped that she was doing just fine.

The King shifted. A weird, gelatinous whole-body sort of shift, as the other voices quieted and she could hear, softly, the voice of her childhood friend, “The King has many friends. Things don’t change here… and…”

It felt like her heart stopped beating in her chest. Ryouta couldn’t… wouldn’t… she dug her nails into the palm of her hand. A heroine wouldn't admit she lost in the face of defeat. A heroine wouldn’t leave a friend behind. “Ryouta! We need to get out of here! If we don’t, we’re going to die—“

“The King doesn’t care,” Ryouta’s voice said, sounding irritable, “The King has many friends here. We’ll always be together.”

“I’m not going to leave without you!” She took a step forward, defiantly. The gelatinous King shrank back in fear. Clearly, intimidation tactics would be the route to certain victory here: she took another step forward, but rather than shrinking again, The King started to throb like an infected sore. 

“Get back!” Nageki shouted (well, frankly, not really, the loudest Nageki ever got was an irritated library whisper). The King burst forth from their singular body, heads exploding from his body like some sort of hydra made of flesh and people. Hiyoko managed to stumble back enough to avoid an ichorous explosion from The King’s original head. 

“Ryouta! Where are you?” Hiyoko shouted in the general direction of The King who still throbbed like a headache. 

“Join The King. No one is alone with The King. Nothing bad can ever happen with The King,” the discordant voices whispered. It was making her head hurt. The King started to wiggle, then thrash wildly, Hiyoko pulled back to the edge of the room with Nageki to avoid it. 

“…So Ryouta’s part of The King now,” Hiyoko said after a moment of thought.

Nageki paused before speaking carefully, “It would appear that way, yes.”

“But I mean, each individual person that became The King should be in there, right?”

He didn’t say anything. For a moment, she wasn’t even certain that he’d heard her, until he finally asked, “Do you think you can rescue miss Kawara if you go in there?” Haha, of course he figured it out! He was probably smarter than anybirdie Hiyoko knew. 

“Yeah! I’ll go in there and get her back out! A true hunter-gatherer would be able to track down their closest friend,” this had been true throughout history, from Gilgamesh and Enkidu to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. She had no worry she would be able to save Ryouta.

Nageki looked at her, then at The thrashing King, then back at Hiyoko. “...I don’t think anyone can be rescued once they become part of that King,” he said, finally. That hurt Hiyoko, she had hoped that he’d at least believe in her… but he opened his mouth and began to speak again, “But if it were possible, you’d be the one to do it.”

She smiled, taking off her jacket and tying it around her waist. “I’ll be back before you know it! Stay away from The King while I’m gone.”

“Wait,” he dug through his pockets before he pulled out what appeared to be a wad of string, apparently from his sweater, “leave some thread behind as you go in so you can find your way back.”  


“I think my hunter-gatherer instincts will work better than that stuff!”

Nageki gave her a Look, the one that said he didn’t believe that for a moment, so she agreed to do as he said anyways. She could do this; she wasn’t afraid. She took in a deep breath and ran for The King. She wasn’t sure if it was because The King was presuming that Nageki and her would continue to dodge and avoid him, or if it was because no one ever simply charged into The King head-on, but they didn’t move or shrink against the force of her sprint. 

She expected she’d just… bowl over The King, honestly. But what it felt like when she hit it was body slamming a bowl of extremely dense jelly. She wasn’t certain if she was closing her eyes, but everything was dark. It felt like trying to breath through a dense bear pelt, and it sounded like there was an army of people muttering a few feet away. Honestly, it was all rather dizzying. But, slowly, she placed one foot in front of the next, somehow continuing onward.

Remembering the ball of string, she unwound it as she advanced, picking up what could only be describe as the ‘feeling’ of Ryouta. 

Ryouta was sweet.

Ryouta was kind. 

Ryouta was caring.

Ryouta was ahead.

Her hunter-gatherer instincts weren’t going to fail her any time soon, of that she was certain. Hiyoko was getting closer to where her friend was. The muttering grew quieter and quieter until, finally, she saw her. Ryouta Kawara, huddled in the middle of the semi-solid floor, wearing a fluffy mantle and a crown that seemed too big for her head. It was hard to contain her excitement, “Ryouta! Hi! I’m here to rescue you!”  


But Ryouta didn’t say anything, instead picking at the fluff that lined her mantle. Though it seemed unlikely that she wouldn’t hear Hiyoko’s shouting, perhaps she hadn’t realized she was there. She offered her hand to her friend, practically waving it in front of her face. “...The King wants to stay here.”

“You’re not The King. You’re Ryouta! Ryouta Kawara! And you gotta come with me or we’ll get left behind,” she had heard from Yuuya that if they didn’t leave, they’d die, but she didn’t want to scare Ryouta, not here. What would that help?

She stopped picking at her mantle. Had Ryouta always looked this tired, or was it just how what she was wearing made her look? She stared up at Hiyoko with exhausted eyes, “The King doesn’t have to leave. The King can stay here. Nothing has to change. The King can be happy here.”

“Nothing good will happen if you just stay here. What are you so afraid of?” Hiyoko tilted her head, looking back into her friend’s red eyes. She looked away quickly. 

“...don’t want anything to change,” she muttered, staring back at her cloak.

“I still don’t understand what’s scary about change. Why are you so worried about it?”

She looked particularly sullen about that remark, “Of course you wouldn’t.”

Sheesh! What was she being so stubborn about? “Yeah, I guess not! But it doesn’t help that you’re not explaining anything.”

And back to the fluff picking again. Tired from the trek and the lack of real air, Hiyoko sat back on the ground, across from her friend. “...if things don’t change, they can stay like this.” When she raised an eyebrow, she continued, “if The King stays here, then The King can always think that… what’s most important to you…”

She couldn’t parse what her friend was trying to tell her. But she did know one thing, “If nothing changes, nothing can get better. I mean, nothing can get worse, but nothing can get better either. And if you don’t come back with me, I don’t know if I really want to go back, anyways.”

“Why… wouldn’t you want to go back?” she asked, hesitating. 

“You’re my friend! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I couldn’t save you.”

“Then if The King was San, or anybirdie, it wouldn’t matter. You’d still rescue them.”

Hiyoko scratched the back of her neck, “Well, yeah, I suppose.” That response made Ryouta look like she was sinking further into the floor, “But you’re my best friend. I’ve never been without you. I mean, I know someday I’ll wake up and you won’t be with me anymore, but…” _But not tomorrow morning. I don’t want it to be that soon._

Ryouta’s attitude shifted. For a moment, a brief second, she looked at Hiyoko, hopeful and scared. But they fell away again, huddling over and hugging her knees to her chest, “...that isn’t true. It’s different from how it used to be, so it isn’t… the same.” 

“I don’t know what you mean, honestly. But even if you don’t think I do, my heart knows that you’re my best friend, and that’s what I’m counting.” A hunter-gatherer’s heart was never wrong! (Mostly because it leaves all the thinking to the brain!)

Her eyes almost seemed teary with her face hidden behind her knees. It seemed like neither of them said anything for some time, and Hiyoko was starting to wonder if she’d just need to pick up her friend and just carry her out. “...why…” Ryouta said, very softly, very wearily, “why didn’t you just come yourself… why couldn’t it be you instead of Yuuya.”

Her question was odd. Yuuya was very good at saving people, in Hiyoko’s humble opinion. He was flashy, certainly, and definitely foppish, but he was reliable all the same. Her thoughts on her upperclassman were interrupted by a fit of coughing. Apparently, the atmosphere inside of a strange King made of jelly was less than ideal for human breathing. 

“H-Hiyoko!” Ryouta raised her hand, pale as a ghost. Was that the first time she’d said her name since Hiyoko had gotten here? It seemed like it. Her expression was a frown, eyes wide in fear, as she told her, “You can’t stay here. You’re not part of The King and you don’t want to be part of The King so..” her sentence drifted off as she started chewing on her lip. 

“I’m not leaving you here, Ryouta,” she said, having caught her breath, “even if I gotta pick you up and carry you back!” Although, frankly, once she’d gotten deeper into The King, she realized that this wouldn’t be nearly as easy as she’d originally planned. But she had 800 vitality and a ton of determination, so she was willing to try. 

But blue haired girl shook her head, “It’s not possible. The King doesn’t let anyone go. No one leaves The King.”

“You really should stop assuming you’re gonna lose before you even try!” She puffed up her scarred cheeks and got back to her feet. Though she was a little unsteady, she reached for her friend. 

Ryouta shrank away from her hands to the point that she was flat on her back trying to avoid her touch. “I-it won’t work! I’m sorry! I’m really, really, sorry, but I can’t be helped anymore!”

She let out a grumble of frustration (though perhaps a closed-mouth scream would have been more accurate) as she finally got a hold of Ryouta. She felt softer, oddly boneless, but it took more than that to discourage someone with 800 vitality. Hiyoko hefted her like she was a new weight she was using for bicep curls. “See? I’ll just carry you out.”

But the air seemed to stop tolerating her presence; it wasn’t just a struggle to breathe, it was an outright knifefight. An attempt at inhaling felt like she was choking down water, and her lungs already felt like they were on fire. “Hiyoko…”it was Ryouta’s voice, “I’m sorry… I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused. I’m sorry you have to leave without me. I-I’m, I’m s-sorry…”

She couldn’t manage a verbal response, she didn’t have the air for that. Hiyoko simply shook her head and kept walking back the direction she thought she came. Her feet were feeling more and more like she was trying to walk through quicksand. Maybe they were! Maybe that was a thing that The King could do. But she wasn’t going to allow herself to give up! Ryouta was depending on her, after all. 

Though her vision was swimming, she saw a golden thread in the murk (although perhaps a tan thread would have been more accurate. Or maybe the lack of oxygen was making her brain see things. Whatever!) She set Ryouta carefully to her feet, keeping her hand locked in hers. _Follow the thread out! Like that story with the breadcrumbs except no one eats string so you’re safe!_ Ryouta, was, again, dragging her feet. Sheesh! She was not making this rescue attempt easy. “I don’t know if I can--” 

“We will,” Hiyoko finally said, inching forward with her hand pressed tight to her friend’s. Even if their palms got sweaty, even if Hiyoko was starting to feel exhausted, she was going to press forward, because she loved Ryouta too much to leave her behind. She looked back at her and smiled. Her friend sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve, and knocked the crown off of her head, undid the ties that held her mantle to her. 

The hunter-gatherer continued forward, but soon, her childhood friend was matching her step. Hiyoko followed the tan string, ready to go back. Her exhaustion was almost painful, and the lack of air wasn’t exactly helping. She stumbled, and like a ton of bricks, she fell. She wanted to take Ryouta back, to bring her back home, but struggling to breathe was enough of a challenge for her at that point. Frankly, she was disappointed in herself. 800 vitality should have taken her there and out, no problem!

Ugh, what a disappointment she was, especially when she said they’d get out. She still had a second, or perhaps third or fourth wind, right? 

But brains only run for so long deprived of oxygen, even when that brain did only have 1 wisdom. It wasn’t how she thought she’d die, although it did seem oddly on par for the course of bad ideas that led to inevitable death. She thought she could hear someone pleading, distantly, pressure on her back, warm but shaking. There was a blinding light and sound, as she closed her eyes to greet her old friend Death.

“No one’s died? That’s a disappointment,” the voice of a doctor said. Which was odd because Hiyoko was fairly certain that Death did not sound like the guy in charge of the infirmary. 

“Tragically, doctor, it seems that our dear friends Hiyoko and Ryouta are alive,” it sounded like that flashy upperclassman, which, again, was not what Death sounded like. 

She tried to crack open her eyelids and found that not only was it entirely possible, but was 1. seeing, 2. breathing and 3. not telling Death her current inventory of items. And Ryouta was clutching her hand as if her life depended on it. Or perhaps it was the other way around, there was such a thing as a near-deathgrip, right? “Did you guys beat The King?”  


“The King is still alive. I was going to go after him,” Nageki said quietly, sitting above Hiyoko’s head.

“Then I’ll come too! You can’t beat the final boss without the heroine!”

Ryouta squeezed her hand, almost nervously. Was something wrong? “Miss Tosaka, you’re recovering from an extended period without air. I don’t think chasing down and fighting anyone is in your best--” 

“I’ll help!” her closest friend suddenly blurted out, hesitating before she added, “I could make sure she’s alright.”

“Ryouta will make sure I’m fine! See?”

Nageki rolled his eyes, and his mouth twitched upwards. No wait, perhaps he was smiling? Careful, your face might crack if you’re not careful! “If you’re bound and determined, I guess I can’t stop you,” he said, looking at Ryouta, “besides, at least she’ll be able to take care of you.”

Hiyoko smiled a chipped-tooth grin at the two of them. At least, she assumed she had, her face hurt too much to determine if she had or not. Ryouta helped her back to her feet, hands clamped together. She took a deep breath, and ran forward, the two people she cared about most trailing behind her.


End file.
